Author Archives: biglychee

The SCMP reports experts’ suggestions for fixing the government’s budget deficit… The Hong Kong government could reduce land sale prices, improve the efficiency of 167,000 civil servants and temporarily freeze their pay as possible solutions to ease the HK$100 billion … Continue reading →

In an interesting test of how much has changed in the last five years, Hong Kong and Mainland authorities  are permitting unlimited cross-border visits by Shenzhen residents. Last time this happened, Sheung Shui and other New Territories towns were flooded … Continue reading →

Let’s pretend it’s not structural, part 2. According to the Basic Law, the Hong Kong government should balance its budget. Instead, for many years, it reported vast surpluses. And these days, it’s vast deficits. (I suppose you could try arguing … Continue reading →

The Economist (probably paywalled) suggests that the decline in Hong Kong real-estate prices is not a passing phase… Home prices have fallen by over a quarter since late 2021. In September they reached their lowest level in eight years; the … Continue reading →

Ocean Park is losing money, even though it is attracting large numbers of visitors and now has six panda bears.  I went to Water World a few times back when it existed. But my first (and only) ever visit to … Continue reading →

Interviewed on Sky News, Sebastian Lai says he doesn’t think his father has long to live. The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed on the Jimmy Lai trial (article probably paywalled, but you should be able to see the video … Continue reading →

Interesting Substack article about Chinese state media’s limited success in using overseas social media to influence foreign audiences, with special reference to Twitter… As yet, not many state media influencers have migrated over [to BlueSky]. Will they? Almost certainly. These … Continue reading →

Some interesting stats about demographic changes in Hong Kong.  On the relatively lighter side, Bloomberg notes that residential rents in mid-range middle-class areas have risen strongly in the first 10 months of this year (relatively cheap Tung Chung up 16.4%, … Continue reading →

Not all Trump’s nominees for national security advisors are nuts like Seb Gorka. A sharper one is Alex Wong, a former State Dept official who outlines a no-nonsense analysis of why China inevitably sees the US as an adversary in … Continue reading →

The FT asks whether Beijing can find a way to flatter/cajole Trump into doing its bidding… “They were scrambling around Washington and New York to find connections to Trump. They were asking Democratic analysts how to manage the Trump team,” … Continue reading →